Luke’s first Christmas season was a success!  It was so fun to celebrate with him this year.  We really worked hard at keeping Christ at the center of our season this year, and I think we did a pretty good job.   Every year, we have dinner at the Little America Coffee Shop with my family and see the lights at the Grand America.  I always love that night…the rolls at the Little America are to die for.  Oh yeah, and the Christmas decor isn’t half bad either.

This year, I helped coordinate my work’s Angel Tree.  It was such a humbling experience for me.  Colton and I decided that we wanted to help out and ended up collecting the names and needs of a local family to shop for for the holidays.  Both of our families also contributed.  We filled our car full of presents for this family of 12…Luke barely fit!  Since I work for the city, we were able to deliver our gifts directly to the family and meet them.   It was an incredible experience, and made me feel so much closer to the Savior this year.  Colton and I are not rich by any means, but we did what we were able to, and we were grateful that all of our family contributed as well.

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with my family.  Luke LOVED opening presents.  He really got the hang of it after a while.  He was really spoiled between Santa, us, and both sets of grandparents!  I mean…how could you not spoil such an adorable kid?

On Christmas morning, after opening gifts, we took our new hiking backpack out for a spin around Huntsville.  Luke loved it, and we really enjoyed the views!  Seriously…HOW CUTE IS HE IN THESE PICTURES?

We went back a few days later for New Years Eve and snowshoed across Pineview.  Since the water level was so low before winter, it was totally safe.  In all of my years living in Huntsville, we had never gone all the way across the lake!  It was really fun, and the views were incredible!